The production and sale of video games is a huge business with sales revenue exceeding ten billion dollars annually in the United States alone. The sale of video games does not necessarily translate into revenues for game producers and publishers. A used game may be sold many times before its popularity declines. Publishers do not normally share in the proceeds generated by the legal sale of previously owned (“used”) video games.
A significant amount of potential revenue is also siphoned off by the pirating of video games. The video game industry has invested time and resources into developing technologies to counter piracy. Such technological solutions to piracy are generally short-lived. As long as a significant segment of the gaming public believes that video game piracy is a “victimless” crime, the demand for less expensive versions of games will continue to provide incentives for pirates to defeat protection technologies and to produce and sell unauthorized copies of video games.
While convincing gamers to respect the intellectual property rights of game developers and publishers may appear futile, providing gamers an incentive to only purchase authorized copies of video games may be easier, less costly, and even profitable for game IP rights holders.